I was in AA for a number of years. Oops, I let it slip. Among my many sins and weakness's is alcohol. A number of years have gone by since I was delivered but it can still tempt. AA is only as good as the group you end up in and it has its faults, one is how they deal with unbelievers. Since it was originally founded on a belief in God and His ability to deliver from alcohol it had a problem in how to deal with the unbelievers that came into the program. It was decided that the unbeliever would make up a god of their choosing. Pick your own god worked because many in AA came to believe in the god they made up. He was not the true God of the Bible but he was their god.

No doubt many reading this will find the whole idea offensive if not blasphemous and it is both, offensive and blasphemous; but what I have begun to learn is that many Christians do the same. They would deny it, of course, but in fact that's what they do. They pick those attributes of God that appeal to them and ignore or even deny those traits that trouble their sense of ease or frighten them. They adore Jesus and His love and humility and in effect refuse to look at the other aspects of the Son that are just as real and true. It is understandable, the gospels and the rest of the New Testament have a great deal to say about the love of God and do not dwell on the justice and wrath of God that made Jesus sacrifice necessary. With the exception of Luke the writers of the New Testament were devote Jews raised in the teachings of the Old Testament. The wrath of God in the Old Testament was so apparent and obvious to them that they did not need to emphasize it or dwell on it. The unveiling of the mystery of the gospel was such a wonderful and unexpected message of love and forgiveness they could not help but shout it from the rooftops. The lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world was not the Messiah they were expecting. He would come later and will not be the lamb of God but the Lion of Judah.

God is love. God is Just. God is all knowing. God is present everywhere at all times. God is jealous. God is all powerful. God is sovereign over all things. God is long-suffering and slow to anger. God created all things and in Him all things live and move and have their being. However, the paramount attribute of God is Holiness. God is Holy! The cherubim at the throne of God cry, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. What is Holy? Transcedant, lifted up, above all things, unique, self-existent, pure. If we had to pick one word that comes close to explaining Holiness it would be purity meaning, untainted, without admixture, incorruptible, having complete integrity, unchanging. Holy is not a concept I would pretend to grasp, except in part, because true Holiness is so foreign to man and the world we live in. But it is the necessary springboard to explain those things about God that we find difficult to grasp. His very real hatred of sin and His implacable opposition to sin. There is nothing unrighteous in Gods hatred and nothing unrighteous in His wrath or His judgement of sin or sinners. Whatever God does is always right and just. Others would say He could not do anything that was not right and just because that would be against His nature. There is a difference but I don't want to get into that here. We can't be mature and cling to a single attribute of God to the exclusion of the rest because its difficult for us to accept. The God who loves us and died for us is also the God that will destroy us if we are not in Christ. Whatever we might prefer to believe the fact is that few will be saved compared to the many that will be lost. The secularist and some "Christians" believe that man is basically good, despite abundant proof to the contrary. God says we are not. We are corrupted as a race and will sin and rebel against Him because that is our nature. God has said quite clearly that judgement is coming and that day will be terrible beyond comprehension. That being the case, as the time draws near, what should we be about? Do we spend our time on our self-appointed ministry or do we spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and salvation so that some might be saved from the wrath that is coming? Will we draw back from the whole truth because it is hard and hide in our half-truths and refuse to tell those who are not in Christ that they will perish in their sins if they don't repent and put their faith and trust in Christ Jesus. How can we believe that telling someone about the truth of wrath and judgement and the means to escape that judgement is the gospel and that is not the most loving thing we can do. You can save someone's life and that is a good and noble thing but how much more noble would it be to tell them the good news of the gospel of Christ so that they might escape the just judgement and wrath of God against all sin. Moses offered the nation of Israel blessing or cursing. Jesus offers eternal life or eternal death.

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